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The Jackal
__FORCETOC__ Appearance Medium-length wavy brown hair, athletic physique, fairly tall at 5'9". Has kind green eyes and freckles. She usually wears jeans or brightly-colored skirts with flip-flops, along with simple t-shirts or blouses that are almost always sleeveless. As The Jackal, her superhero costume has an unaffiliated military-type look to it. Mask: A dark gray, taut cloth mask covers her nose and lower face. An off-white design imitating a sharp row of fangs runs across the mouth of her mask and almost to her ears, appearing like a wide and toothy jackal's mouth. Upper body: A simple form-fitting top, similar to a wetsuit. The front half of the top is dark gray that gradients to a dark black beginning at the sides. Also wears a slim black backpack housing communication and surveillance tools from her mentor. Arms: Shoulders and biceps are the same dark gray style as her upper-body outfit. Forearms are covered by a black-wrapped caestus on each arm, with dull black metal plating set over the backhands and knuckles. Lower body: Dark gray form-fitting cloth pants with side pockets, suspended by a slim black utility belt. Main portrait art by lesly-oh Powers Superhuman Physique Melody has superhuman athleticism and is extremely well-rounded in her physical gifts. Incredibly strong, very fast and agile, and tough as nails. Throwing a truck, jumping to the fifth story of a building, running faster than non-highway traffic or surviving a big hit from a supervillain? No problem. Impossible Fighting Skills Melody is a highly skilled martial artist who is always looking to test her mettle against any challenger. She's been trained by The Jackal (aka Old Jackal) who taught her a unique fighting style that combines Hung Gar Kung Fu, Western Boxing, Savate, and some secret shadow-controlling techniques that can heighten battle prowess. She generally stays in an extremely low stance while fighting and her style looks very distinct, though she also tries to steal hand-to-hand moves from friend and foe alike. Shadow Chains The Jackals, a collection of shadow spirit beings, gave Melody the ability to use Shadow Chains after she told the spirits that she would sacrifice anything but her friends for the power to protect Halcyon. She can cause these shadowy chains to appear and bind a target, or form a protective obstacle or barrier. These chains affect spiritual and physical entities. Background Pre-Big Team Melody spent ages 0-14 in Santa Cruz, California with her parents Michael and Monica Goldman. Back home, she loved going to the beach and was really, really good at sports. But Melody's carefree life changed dramatically when her parents moved the family to Halcyon City a couple of years ago. Powers Awakened A few months after moving to Halcyon City with her family, Melody was downtown by herself when she witnessed a powerful cyborg begin indiscriminately attacking civilians. Rushing to protect someone, Melody was struck by a powerful energy blast and... survived somehow. She spent the next several minutes throwing herself in harm's way, using her body to protect defenseless civilians from the cyborg in the only way she knew how. The Jackal, a notorious solo vigilante and Silver Age superhero, watched from a nearby rooftop as the young girl struggled to her feet again and again in defense of the city. As the cyborg prepared its finishing blow, The Jackal swooped in and drove it off. Taking the unconscious body of Melody to her secret medlab, The Jackal made her an offer when Melody awoke: become my disciple, master my fighting style, and make villains fear the name of The Jackal long after I'm gone. Melody accepted immediately, and a grueling two years of training began. Joining the Big Team Melody's mentor insists on solo heroing-- others can't be trusted, and even other heroes will betray you someday, she says. Despite a healthy diet of team sports and relying on teammates while growing up, Melody took her mentor's advice to heart and started her hero career solo for several months. But solo heroing is dangerous... and lonely. With her parents out of country on work, Melody began longing for the friendship and camaraderie she had back home, and started to find hero work isolating. It didn't take long for Melody, acting as The Jackal, to get in over her head when she arrived at a midnight bank heist where the crooks were armed with powerful energy weapons and had rigged the building to blow as a failsafe. But there was another hero there too-- also in over his head. Melody and the other hero teamed up, covered each other's weaknesses, and managed to defeat the criminals right before the building would have been destroyed. In the aftermath, Melody realized the other hero, Herald, was her childhood friend Aman. After revealing her identity to him, Aman let Melody know about the Big Team and encouraged her to join. And after almost a year of solo work, how could Melody turn down joining an awesome team of people in the same situation as her? Everything's better on a team! Big Team (Season 3) Melody joined the team as the threat of Gambite first reared its head, and mostly spent her time divided between combating Gambite and helping with the mayoral election and early first term of Mayor Cyclone. She also became "Co-Mayor of Halcyon" by defeating SHILK aliens in a sanctioned HHTTW title match, busted up SHILF Island, time-travelled to Montreal in 1955, and saw the heat deaths of multiple dreamscapes. Ultimately, she helped lead the team that went into Casper's mind and defeated Bloodshot/the Abyss. Though she often proved herself to the team with her combat ability and quick thinking, she also found herself struggling to open up to other team members and to assert her own identity. Her mentor frequently excoriated her for working with the Big Team, trusting them, and being emotional, which led to Melody shutting her emotions away. After a string of mission failures and an inability to connect with most teammates brought things to a head, Melody's new friends on the Big Team helped her open up, accept herself, trust others deeply, and assert herself to her mentor. Perhaps most importantly, she also joined a band composed of super-strong Big Team girls called the Flex Girls, where she plays keyboard and sings backup vocals. Big Team (Season 3.5) The winter break saw Melody (aka Hellody Goreman) teach Stormbreaker to wrestle, defend her "Co-Mayor of Halcyon" title against Last Rite, and 'lose' the championship to Ellen. She helped recruit a couple new people to the team, become friends with Rat and helped convince her to accept Zodiac City's magic for the year, and accidentally raided a treasure compound belonging to The Pharaoh. Relationships Family Michael Goldman and Monica Goldman Both brilliant, both nerdy, both very sweet, both doctors serving with Doctors Without Borders. Gone for most of the year in their service, they send emails and call Melody whenever they can. Being alone at home for months at a time, Melody gets very lonely for her parents, but tries not to let on to them or anybody else. Melody's parents have always been very supportive of her, even though she's way more of a jock than them and they sometimes have trouble relating to her. Melody has always deeply admired her parents and wants to help save people in dangerous situations, just like her parents do, but felt like she never had the intelligence to do amazing things like them. But with her powers awakened, Melody finally feels like she can make them proud... even if they don't know she's a superhero yet. They're also incredibly close with Belal and Javeria Isar, Aman's parents. The Goldmans went to the same med school as Bel, he was the best man at their wedding, and they kept in touch even when Melody's parents moved away. Their families met up for vacations every few years since, and now live on the same street. Mentor Old Jackal The Jackal (or Old Jackal, as Melody has never once called her to her face), is a Silver Age solo vigilante superhero who is a couple decades past her prime. Late 50s/early 60s, about 5’6” with short, black, graying hair and intense gray eyes. Gruff, scary, disparages others constantly, and again, scary. Always thinks she's right, usually works solo after a fallout with the League of Heroes in her past, and rarely trusts others. Old Jackal is nicer to Melody than she is to anyone else, but is still unreasonably demanding and a perfectionist. She sees Melody as the best hope of continuing her fighting style and the legacy she's built up over her lifetime, and thinks Melody has been doing a good job as a hero, but frequently chides her for trusting the team and especially for bringing any of them to her Medlab. During the events of Season 3, Old Jackal worked with Star-Studded, intercepted/stole missions intended for the League of Heroes, and revealed that she was employed by Cyclone. Close Friends Herald A family and childhood friend of Melody's, she's known Aman since they were barely able to walk. She never had a super close relationship with him until moving back to Halcyon City in the last couple of years, but finally developed one after finding out that Aman was a superhero too. They spar together and hang out frequently now. Melody sees Aman as an eternal dork, a goober, her best friend and someone she can tell (almost) all her secrets to, and his encouragement brought Melody to the Big Team. She still blames herself for the loss of Aman's Eye to his cousin Esam. Developed a crush on Aman in the last few months, but hasn't told him yet. Ellen Melody thinks Ellen is very sweet, EXTREMELY cool, and a thoroughly good person. Old Jackal insisted that Melody keep an eye on her because "someone's personality never changes, you need to be there to put down that threat when she shows who she really is, etc etc". So, of course, Melody invited Ellen to live with her immediately. After living together for several months and getting to know each other, Melody now thinks of Ellen as a sister. Verve Her friendship with Atlanta was basically forged in fire-- they'd never teamed up until the worst day of Atlanta's life, when her brother Jasper was held hostage and she was forced to reveal her secret identity as Verve. Melody rescued Jasper during the chaos and bonded with Atlanta soon after, and they've been very close friends since then. Melody thinks of Atlanta as very thoughtful, sweet, caring, and super badass, and trusts her as much as her other closest friends. After finding out that Atlanta is best friends with Ellen, the three now hang out together regularly. The Weatherman Melody didn't get a chance to talk to Ernest during their first several missions together, and began to think he was the cool silent type who was also a god at DDR and could control the weather. Turns out he's actually really sweet and thoughtful, and they've opened up to each other since then. Melody trains Ernest in gym exercises, basic fighting, and mentored him in wrestling, and marvels at how quickly he picks it all up. She feels a bit protective of him and often tries to stick near him in fights, and loves going on missions with him and hanging out with him in general. Ares Melody thinks Seth is impossibly rad. He's super chill, handsome, smart, brave, and has definitely saved her life multiple times. She thinks Seth is an awesome teammate, and definitely someone she wants to hang out with more. Melody is still a bit flabbergasted that Seth is not only acquaintances with Aman but best friends with him, as she thought someone as cool as him wouldn't be caught dead associating with a dork like Aman. Also thinks of Seth as the Big Team member most able to take care of himself solo. [[Leap Year|'Leap Year']] Melody thinks Seb is a really awesome guy, but also thinks of him as WAY older than her. That's partially because he's always calm and level-headed and intelligent, and partly because his personality reminds Melody of her dad, but mostly because one of the first things Seb told Melody was that he traveled here from the future and has a son back there. Kinda. Time travel's weird. But Melody is slowly accepting that Seb is just another kid struggling like she is, and he's quickly become one of the teammates that Melody trusts the most to have her back in a pinch. She also gets parkour lessons from him now. Friends Boon Bandmate and fellow HHTTW menace, Boon's a very chill friend that Melody trusts a lot and loves to compete with. She'll frequently try to make bets with Boon because she knows that Boon loves gambling, but Melody just enjoys the competition. Carmilla Really the nicest vampire imaginable, Melody thinks Tay is very kind and exceptionally talented. Fighting, talking, bomb-defusal, Chitter-posting; what can't she do? Cardinal For Lucas, Melody thinks he's a really nice and smart friend who she just loves catching up with, and she's really proud of him for being tough and bouncing back so quickly after his car wreck. For Cardinal, Melody thinks he's really clever and a good fit for the team, but his insistence on secrecy and 'secret missions' reminds her of herself when she joined the team. She wants to be a good mentor for him and help him open up to the team, like other team members helped her to do. Rescue Rescue is nice, extremely funny, powerful, and talented. He's the kind of person that you can't help but smile when talking to, and Melody enjoys hanging out with him. She's also met his SHILF alien incarnation, who was basically the same exact person but with a longer tongue. Challenge Tilly's what Melody thinks she would be like if she was a little less strong and otherwise better at everything else in life. Melody and Tilly have a lot in common (sports, superheroing, volunteering for Cyclone's mayoral campaign's phone bank) and get along very well, and Melody is constantly impressed with the staggering amount of activities that Tilly both excels at and finds time for. Retired Buddies Gwendolyn du Lac Big sister vibes! Gwen's brave, kind, super capable, and sensitive to how other people feel, and she was one of the first people on the team that Melody was able to open up to. She inspired Melody to reject Old Jackal's insistence on ignoring emotions, and set her on the path to becoming a more empathetic teammate and person. Lily Melody got to team up with Lily in an accidental raid on The Pharaoh's treasure compound, and the two quickly gained each other's respect and friendship. Melody really admires Lily's ingenuity, bravery, kindness, and all the absolutely wild magic stuff she's seen and done. Melody tries to visit the Round Table offices to say hi to Lily when she can. Significant Others The Vague Concept of Justice Journal Entries The Jackal's Journal Scenes Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (November 6th, 2019) After the Storm (November 24th, 2019) The Breakfast Club (January 24th, 2020) Category:Characters Category:PC Category:B-Verse Category:Jackal